Goals of Human-Computer Interaction

Dimensions of usability

Preece, Rogers and Sharp provide one of the more comprehensive lists for defining usability (p. 14):

Safety and memorability do not appear on many people's lists. Effectiveness seems to be one of the most abused usability terms.

Most authors also include user satisfaction as an important usability goal (also called attitude or likeability). Note that Preece, Rogers and Sharp cover this dimension under User Experience Goals in section 1.5.2.

HCI practitioners need to be mindful of other practical considerations when designing their products. These include the impact of legacy systems, portability and reliability.

Elementary design principles

The text lists some basic design principles that help support the usability goals listed above. This is a very basic list:

Many of these principles are addressed in Nielsen's heuristic evaluation (see section 1.6.1 in the text).

Discussion items:


Last modified: Wed Sep 08 14:43:52 Central Daylight Time 2004